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God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America [Paperback]

Hanna Rosin
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 8, 2008

Since 2000, America’s most ambitious young evangelicals have been making their way to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian school just outside the nation’s capital. Most of them are homeschoolers whose idealism and discipline put the average American teenager to shame. And God’s Harvard grooms these students to be the elite of tomorrow, dispatching them to the front lines of politics, entertainment, and science, to wage the battle to take back a godless nation. Hanna Rosin spent a year and a half embedded at the college, following the students from the campus to the White House, Congress, conservative think tanks, Hollywood, and other centers of influence. Her account captures this nerve center of the evangelical movement at a moment of maximum influence and also of crisis, as it struggles to avoid the temptations of modern life and still remake the world in its own image.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Envisioned by its founder as a "Christian equivalent of the Ivy League," Patrick Henry College positions itself as a training ground for God's cultural soldiers to take on the secular mainstream; at the seven-year-old Virginia school for evangelicals, religion and political journalist Rosin reports, girls are warned by e-mail if their bra strap is showing, dating requires parental permission and students fast forward through sex scenes in movies. Though they might seem out of touch, students here are as ambitious as any Ivy Leaguers, interning in the White House and Hollywood, volunteering on political campaigns and doggedly pursuing studies like baraminology (creationist biology). Having spent a year and a half immersed in the campus culture, Rosin weaves a deft and honest narrative of evangelical education, combining historical background (the roots of evangelism, the story of founder Michael Farris), close observation and skeptical wit. Among other students and faculty, Rosin introduces Derek, the fresh-faced, idealistic political volunteer; and Farahn, who gave up dancing for the Lord. Making it clear that the American evangelical population is growing in political and cultural influence, Rosin provides an illuminating, accessible guide to the beliefs, aspirations and ongoing challenges of its next generation.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Patrick Henry College, just outside the nation's capital, is a small school preparing Christian Fundamentalist youth to become the elite of the future, permeating politics and American culture to change what they see as an ungodly nation. Washington Post reporter Rosin spent a year and a half among the faithful, watching the efforts of school founder Michael Farris to mold the next generation of evangelicals. She follows the lives of students, nearly all of them previously homeschooled, as they cope with college life, the world of Washington politics, and questions about their faith and their futures. Farahn, a ballet dancer, is an attractive, somewhat cynical misfit, who struggles through the year. Daniel Noa is trying to reconcile his conservative persona at school with the greater tolerance of his hometown of Hollywood, where growing numbers of Christian filmmakers are making their mark. Elisa is a bright, earnest young woman, chafing at the expectations that she will curb her ambitions and devote herself to a future husband and children. A captivating look at struggles within the conservative movement. Bush, Vanessa --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 312 pages
  • Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 8, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0156034999
  • ISBN-13: 978-0156034999
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,149,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 61 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Putting Evangelicals in Congress October 6, 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Several intertwined stories:

*How several overly-religious, over-achieving youngsters cope with a new and unique overly-religious, over-achieving college.

*How these students decide where to draw the line when it comes to participation in today's seductive secular culture - with the help of prayer, a personal relationship with Jesus, and Patrick Henry College's conduct manual and "snitch" policy.

*How an attorney, who made a career out of representing the interests of home-schooling parents, opened an evangelical college designed to put high achieving home-schoolers on a career path leading to politics. Student volunteers are given time off to assist the Republicans during each election cycle. A huge number of them get positions assisting Republican Congressmen and Senators in Washington DC during their off time.

*How these kids have been taught since birth that God is on the side of the Republican Party.

Patrick Henry College must tweak a continuous balancing act to maintain their offense and defense against secularism. Founder and President Michael Farris would like PHC to be part of the movement that would return the United States to be the God-fearing society it believes the founding fathers intended. This means an education that enhances a working knowledge of and working relationship with the enemy. That knowledge, at times, enhances the inadvertent defection of some of their brightest stars to the dark side.

Robert Stacey, PhD, consistently was a role model and favored teacher at Patrick Henry.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars well-written but gives extreme examples March 21, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rosin does a wonderful reporting job and writes eloquently on the culture she sought to understand. However, having worked at Patrick Henry College for a time, I found her examples too extreme and not typical of the students I met. She never gives a 'normal' example of students there, but instead focuses on the more peculiar types of students. This does make the book more entertaining to read. Her perception of the controversies among Christian circles is profound, and it would be helpful for Christians to read this book and see themselves from an outside perspective that is both respectful and insightful.
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America Hanna Rosin, Washington Post correspondent, was embedded in the environment of the Patrick Henry College student for a year and reports what she witnessed and learned.

Patrick Henry College is a very small institution, but also newly founded under the clear authority of its president Michael Farris, a Christian homeschool advocate and clear supporter of the link between political conservativism and orthodox evangelical Christianity. The story she tells shows us remarkable resilience and fortitude of the students of this institution Farris can coined "God's Harvard". Indeed it's students will be among the elite of all secondary school graduates much less the creme of the crop among homeschooled teens. The student body which boasts a rather generous helping of homeschooled undergraduates alone supports any assertion that homseschooled teens can compete with the best and brightest of all high school graduates.

Rosin tells tales of highly competitive students who are in the throes of political training at Patrick Henry. these students have unprecedented access to Washington with a clear sense of mission and pride about their task to reform American government to be something in which God can exercise domain and rule. That God is not currently doing so is at the very heart of the curriculum. In any college, one would be thrilled to have such a critical mass of bright and passionate students and this is part of the picture that Rosin paints for us.

There is, of course, another side to the story. This side is the authoritarian nature of the administration with a special emphases on Michael Farris and Dean of Students Bob Wilson.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, Humane Work of Cultural Anthropology February 21, 2008
Format:Hardcover
This is a very humane, sometimes amusing, occasionally sharp-eyed, often sympathetic look at a determined subculture.

It is not a chronological narrative but a series of episodes--detailed snapshots illuminating the lives of Patrick Henry students and faculty. Thankfully, Mrs. Rosin doesn't limit her focus to the campus itself, but shows these characters within larger frameworks--the home schooling movement, the ID movement, politicking, and Christian filmmaking.

You feel as if you know these characters--Farahn the (somewhat) rebellious student, fiercely determined PHC founder Tim Farris, good-hearted young Mr. Archer--in the round, as if they were old friends.

Mrs. Rosin's curiosity and open-minded humanity have given birth to an excellent book--perhaps a classic of cultural anthropology and sociology.

A must-read.
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31 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It probably should be mentioned at the outset that the term "Christian" as used in the context of this review refers to a particular brand of Protestant Christianity -- evangelical or fundamentalist -- which differs in many theological essentials from other Protestant Christian churches. Commonly, these believers are referred to as the "Christian Right" in contrast to members of the latter churches who often are considered "liberal" or "moderate." With that caveat in hand, then, let's begin.

I am pretty astute at keeping up on public affairs, especially regarding political and religious issues, so how I missed this important story I can't explain. Of course, it is always possible that I did hear some reference to Patrick Henry College and its special program somewhere along the way and simply let it pass by or didn't focus on it with any deliberate attention. That, if so, has now been rectified. Hanna Rosin, a veteran reporter who has covered religion and politics for many years, has, I think, done an excellent job of exploring the ins and outs of an evangelical Christian college, founded in 2000 by Christian activist Michael Farris, which is dedicated to the proposition that the future of America rests in the hands of a college-trained Christian elite which itself is dedicated to saving America from "secular humanism" or any variant thereof.

Rosin's book is titled "God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America." I might suggest an alternate title: "God's Military Academy." It seems to me that Patrick Henry College is much more than your usual, traditional liberal arts college; at the least it does not share many of the important features I am familiar with in my undergraduate experience.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Balanced and fair description of a new and driven evangelical college
Rosin's recent book THE END OF MEN (2012) prompted me to order this book through Amazon. God's Harvard (2007) is a fast read, informative, and well-written. Read more
Published 2 months ago by James H. Nelson
4.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating look at life in a counter-culture college
Hanna Rosin wrote an informative book about the inner workings of Patrick Henry College. This educational institution was founded by a man named Michael Farris. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Battleship
2.0 out of 5 stars Opportunity to explore a different world lost due to the author's...
The author had a great opportunity to explore life at an elite evangelical college and squandered it by refusing to let the kids speak for themselves. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Samantha
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting insight
Interesting, thorough work on Patrick Henry College and its students; would have benefited from some longer-term follow-up with older students, to see how their views have... Read more
Published on December 27, 2010 by bottomofthe9th
4.0 out of 5 stars A Conservative Evangelical Weighs In!
Hanna Rosin, journalist who covers religion and politics for the Washington Post, is somehow permitted to get an in-depth look at the goings on at Patrick Henry College, a... Read more
Published on August 6, 2009 by H. Jennings
4.0 out of 5 stars God's Harvard - Highly Recommended
My congratulations to Ms. Rosin for an important and engrossing book about Patrick Henry College, and more generally, a snapshot of evangelicalism in America. Read more
Published on December 23, 2008 by Edward P. Mahaney-walter
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
I loved this book from cover to cover. It was exceptionally well-researched and well-written. The author did what few have managed: She got behind the scenes of self-righteous,... Read more
Published on September 26, 2008 by Orlando Reader
2.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected
This book was not what I expected. The reviews on the back cover proclaimed it to be an unbiased work, but the author's negative, cynical tone towards Christianity is set forth in... Read more
Published on May 20, 2008 by Thomas E. Gaglione
4.0 out of 5 stars What hath God wrought?
I enjoyed this highly readable book tremendously. Author Rosin presents her characters, most with their real names, in a sympathetic albeit questioning light. Read more
Published on May 2, 2008 by James G. Christenson
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating report
Hana Rosin, a Washington Post reporter who embedded herself in the Patrick Henry College for two years so she could get first hand knowledge of how the evangelical college plans to... Read more
Published on March 8, 2008 by Michael Ngan
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